


Book of the Month

by terundoru



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: Eventual Smut, Firsts, Friends With Benefits, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Smut You Can Skip, Unrequited Crush
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-04
Updated: 2019-04-04
Packaged: 2020-01-04 12:34:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18343793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/terundoru/pseuds/terundoru
Summary: Mori Tatsunori has a crush on his classmate, Kamio Akira needs help on his homework, and Uchimura Kyousuke has a crush on Mori, not that he’s going to admit it.





	Book of the Month

**Author's Note:**

> Enjoy my self-indulgence. I’ve marked this as explicit for later chapters. Personally, I like that kind of thing, but the notes will mention which parts you can skip so you can read it mostly sfw (there will still be mentions of the subject but nothing too vulgar).
> 
> MoriKami is the main pairing but UchiMori comes later. There's also one-sided Tachibana crushing from Kamio because...I wrote it...

On a cool spring day, they walked across the bridge in the park about a block from school. It only spanned a small stream, but it was quaint and romantic. All the couples came here, especially now, when the cherry blossoms were beginning to fall and the weather lent itself to snuggling with new love, maybe sipping a hot drink.

A blossom fell into Kamio’s hair, and then another one, and Mori laughed a bit as he brushed them away.

He looked around and quickly laid a kiss on Kamio’s cheek, beside his ear. It was one of his favorite places to kiss, one of his favorite places to catch a glimpse of when it peeked out from behind his hair. There weren't many opportunities Kamio smiled nervously, ultimately deciding to lean into Mori for a split second, enough to let him know that it was welcome.

It was like a movie.

Kamio’s hands were small and rough. Mori’s hands were comparatively softer, and bigger, so they enveloped Kamio’s easily, each one woven into the other boy’s, gripping the other firmly, walking close to each other so that it wouldn’t be immediately obvious to others what was going on despite the scene they’d just played out.

They were together. He couldn’t believe it.

_He couldn’t believe it._

He…

This was real…wasn’t it?

*

*

*

His blurry eyes focused on his surroundings, and he realized he had not left the classroom. He had not left his desk. Class had been dismissed and he’d remained, lost in thought, daydreaming about holding hands with a boy who was only slightly out of eye-shot.

He had it bad, he’d realized, when he’d caught himself staring for the fifth time this week. It was a Wednesday.

Kamio was not conventionally handsome or well-spoken. But something about him was cute—everything about him was cute. His slightly crooked teeth, the way his hair fell over his face, the way he talked too much and too loud, and the kind of infectious personality that suddenly lifted the mood of the room with a smile.

Or maybe it was only Mori’s mood.

Kamio was straightforward. Once you were in, you were  _in_. There were no more layers to pull back. He often looked like he was either very surprised or very irritated, but usually he was neither—he knew that because he knew him.

 “Mori!”

He snapped out of his daze and focused on the boy waving his hands in front of his face.

“Uchimura,” Mori said with a smile, sleepily collecting his books into his bag.

“You alright for practice? You seem tired…”

“It’s fine just…the same as usual, one of the cats kept waking me up last night,” he shook his head and gestured with his hands not to worry. “I didn’t sleep very well.”

“Are you sure? I mean…I don’t think Tachibana-san will mind if you take a day off…”

“Yeah I’m fine. I just need…coffee or something.” He stretched and grabbed his bag from off his chair, ignoring his doubles partner’s concern.

It made sense for him to be worried. If Mori was off his game, so was he. They would both be scolded. But he couldn’t bear the thought of skipping practice right now.

“Akira!” Uchimura shouted across the span of two desks and as he peeled his headphones off his ears, Kamio’s eyes darted over to where Mori sat. “We’re going to practice. Do you want to walk with us?”

Mori offered a polite smile, privately hoping he would decline so that he could get himself together before they saw each other at practice.

He had just built up and then learned he was no longer a part of an imaginary relationship with him, after all. He needed time to breathe before the next round.

“Sorry, I’m going to be late today. I have a meeting with the teacher,” Kamio said grimly.

“Ah, that sucks. We’ll see you later then.” Uchimura adjusted his cap and turned to face the door, nodding to Mori to come along.

Mori hung his bag on his shoulder and looked back briefly to Kamio, who hung his headphones back over his ears and sighed visibly, and they exchanged vague and fleeting eye contact with each other.

It wasn’t good for his heart.

\---

Mori rubbed his eye with his sleeve and tossed an empty coffee can into the corner where the trashcan overflowed because it was always Sakurai’s turn to take out the trash and even so, he always managed to forget.

Actually, it might have been Mori’s turn.

He pretended not to realize that.

Although he knew he wasn’t really up all night because of his cat so much as up all night because he was alone with his thoughts, he couldn’t help but wonder if, maybe, he actually _was_ too tired to practice after all.

He slapped his cheeks and shook himself awake.

He just had to get through practice. Then it was over. He could pass out on his bed when he got home.

His nice, soft bed…warm…

When he stepped outside of the clubroom, Tachibana already had everyone running laps and he folded into the tail of his team, where he could easily maintain the pace.

Two laps later, Kamio burst from the club room, darting past Mori and making his way to the front of the formation. As expected.

He was smiling and laughing, and the shreds of discomfort from earlier had seemed to disappear completely. He seemed free. It was kind of inspiring.

Mori picked up the pace, if only a little.

\---

“Hey…Mori?” Kamio began slowly after practice.

“I know, I wasn’t my best. I just uh….I have this cat, and--”

“Huh…? A cat…?” he blinked and shook his head. “Anyway, no, I need you to help me.”

Mori was nothing compared to Kamio when it came to tennis. He knew that to be true, a simple fact. Nothing could be done to change it and he wasn’t motivated enough to try to surpass him.

Still he felt a softness inside of him when he asked him for his help.

“How could I possibly?” he asked bluntly.

“In English,” Kamio said. “I’m failing. And I can’t fail. The teacher suggested I ask for your help since we’re in the same class and club and, I guess he’s noticed that you’ve helped me with my homework a lot. The only passing grades I have are because you helped me and I...you don’t have to but…”

Kamio bowed and began to plead.

“Please! I can’t let Tachibana-san down! He’s trusting me with the club next year and my grades are so—I can’t keep asking him for help. He’ll start to doubt me…and if I fail I can’t stay on the team anyway…”

“I can help you,” Mori replied. “Of course I will. We need you on the team next year.”

_‘I need you on the team next year.’_

“Really?” a glow hit Kamio’s face and he lit up, his posture strengthening with relief as if Mori had very well just lifted half his burdens from his shoulders.

“Well, probably. I think so.”

“OK. Can you come over tomorrow after practice? My parents will feed you, don’t worry! It’s hard to plan around practice—it’s better since we have the same schedule…”

“Yes.”

“Thank you!” Kamio began to bounce on the balls of his feet. Mori moved out of his way, gesturing to the now empty path he’d made for him to pass through. Kamio pulled his headphones over his ears and grinned in response.

“Yeah, I’m going for more, I’ll call you later!”

Uchimura stepped into the place he had left, almost matching his footprint if he had left one.

“What was that about?”

“He just needs my help with English.”

“Oh, it’s that bad, huh?”

“What does that mean?”

“Nothing, let’s go to the station,” Uchimura laughed.

Mori instinctively glanced back over his shoulder, a bad habit now, itching for one last look before the next day.

With his eyes closed a big smile he raced himself through the trees, disappearing into the woods behind the school.

Kamio Akira was freedom.

Mori closed his hand gently. He could still feel Kamio’s there, even if he’d never held it at all. His fingers twitched, each one missing their make-believe lover.

Kamio Akira was sorrow.


End file.
